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‘No extra powers’ granted to police during G20 summit: Liberals

Toronto’s police chief Bill Blair admitted there never was a five-metre rule allowing police to search and demand identification from anyone too close to the G20 security perimeter.

A pedestrian walks through a fenced off area on Front St. in Toronto, Thursday, June 24, 2010. The perimeter of the G20 summit security zone was designated under Ontario's Public Works Protection Act, meaning police officers had the power to search and detain people near the security zone during the summit. (Tara Walton / Toronto Star File Photo)

By Jesse McLean, Robert Benzie and Tanya TalagaStaff Reporters

Wed., June 30, 2010

In his first day of public appearances after the G20 summit, Toronto’s police chief needed a police escort to enter his own reception.

As angry protesters chanted “Shame!” and called for his resignation, Chief Bill Blair tipped his cap and smiled at the crowd of about 100 people on his way into a Pride Week event hosted by Toronto police.

He left the event after 30 minutes, again needing an escort of members his own force to get through the mob.

Earlier in the day, Blair admitted there never was a five-metre rule allowing police to search and demand identification from anyone who strayed too close to the G20 security perimeter.

“The information I was given when I was first advised of the regulation is that it pertained to an area of five metres outside the perimeter of the fence,” Blair said Tuesday.

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“Once that information was clarified to us, we immediately notified all of our officers by a directive about the appropriate application of that regulation.”

Blair’s acknowledgment that there had been confusion about the rule prompted critics to question why police and the provincial government did not do more to explain the law to the public before or during the G20 summit.

“If you are passing this law in secret or without public transparency, people will misread it and you’ll have no time to correct it,” said Nathalie Des Rosiers, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. “There was no debate in the public with regards to the scope of the act.”

As first revealed by the Star last Friday, the Public Works Protection Act was amended by Premier Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet on June 2 to allow police to arrest people who refused to supply ID or agree to a search at the G20 summit site.

McGuinty’s administration said Tuesday the changes applied only to areas inside the G20 security perimeter, not outside it.

The Canadian Press reported that when Blair was asked Tuesday whether the five-metre rule existed, the chief smiled and said, “No, but I was trying to keep the criminals out.”

Blair later said his comment was in reference to his initial application to the province to designate parts of the G20 security area under the act. And he argued that the public was adequately informed about the nature of the law.

Blair said he reasoned that flyers had previously been sent out to Toronto residents clearly explaining what police conduct would be during the G20 summit, and that ads had been taken out in several newspapers.

“(We) clearly defined to all Torontonians what to expect if they attended at the perimeter. It was very explicit if they were entering the gates of that zone what they could expect from police,” Blair said.

The ad said anyone looking to get into the G20 perimeter would have to show ID and might be searched.

The regulatory change was quietly posted on the government’s e-laws website on June 16 and will not be published in the official Ontario Gazette until this Saturday — even though the time-limited measure requested by Blair expired Monday.

Laura Blondeau, an aide to Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci, said Tuesday that only areas within the security perimeter immediately around the summit were affected by “being designated public lands” from June 21 until Monday.

The Liberal government also insisted that “no extra powers” were granted to Toronto Police for the G20 summit.

“The point is, those mass arrests in the streets of Toronto that occurred during the summit were under the authority of the Criminal Code, not the so-called sweeping powers that actually don’t exist,” said Blondeau.

Police said Tuesday that only one person was arrested under the legislation.

“If you’d come to me and said 35 people arrested outside the fence, you used the legislation incorrectly, you should have told people, I’d concede your point,” said police spokesperson Mark Pugash. “But in the end, one person was arrested inside the fence.”

But anecdotal evidence from people like Aaron Adams, 24, suggests police literally overstepped their boundaries.

The freelance web developer was taking pictures of a piece of fence under the Union Station rail tracks on Friday when he was stopped by Toronto police officer.

“He asked me for identification, I said to him, ‘Why?’ And he immediately grew belligerent,” Adams said Tuesday.

The unnamed officer cited the controversial Public Works Protection Act and warned that “new legislation had been passed and anybody inside the security zone or within five metres of the fence was required to produce identification upon request, or submit to a search or they could be arrested.”

Adams handed over his driver’s licence and the officer asked what was in his duffle bag, before finally letting him go without any charges being laid.

The Torontonian’s experience flies in the face of the province’s assertion police “had the same powers before, during, and after the summit.”

Toronto defence lawyer Paul Calarco said the government is “playing with words.”

“The police have been given much greater power because they have been given the power to enforce a statute for an area that cannot reasonably be a public work as defined by the statute,” said Calarco.

“They’re taking microsurgical definitions of legislation to try to say that we have not been violating Canadians’ constitutional rights,” he added. “These are facile justifications on behalf of the government.”

University of Toronto law professor Lorne Sossin told the Star’s Tracey Tyler his concern is the province’s failure to clarify what the amendment covered, why it was enacted in light of existing powers and how it would be enforced.

Also, the “failure to publicize the change seems to undermine its intent, which is to ensure those coming near the security zone understood it was to be treated like a courthouse or other public building where additional police scrutiny (such as demanding ID) would apply,” said Sossin.

“The government and the police could not have been surprised that the amendment would cause anxiety with the public and especially those already concerned about the massive police presence in the city. Whether or not arrests were made under the amended authority, this aspect of the security arrangements for the summit could and should have been handled better.”

In his only public comments on the law, McGuinty has defended his government’s actions and said he was happy to oblige Blair’s request in May for a clarification on the act.

“I just think it’s in keeping with the values and standards of Ontarians,” the premier told the Star.

“We’re supportive of that when it becomes our airports, our Legislature and our courthouses and I think for a time-limited purpose it’s also supportable here,” McGuinty said Friday.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak called the regulatory change a “secretive and dishonest” move by the Liberals.

“I do believe if they had communicated from the beginning that extraordinary measures were required during extraordinary times with the types of thugs and hooligans attracted to this type of event, the majority of people would have understood,” said Hudak.

NDP MPP Peter Kormos (Welland) said the police did not need these powers.

“Bartolucci certainly has to be held accountable for innocent people being taken into arrest on Sunday,” said Kormos. “The government and the minister responsible were unaware from the get-go as to the implications of the regulation.”

Blair has set up an internal task force to review law enforcement actions during the summit. When finished, the report will be presented to the Toronto Police Services Board, where civilian representatives can look at the tactics and ask questions.

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